October 25 events in history

Emperor Leo I acclaims his grandson Leo II as Caesar of the Byzantine Empire

1147

Seljuk Turks completely annihilate German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum

1154

Henry II becomes King of England

1415

The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt

1616

Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the West Australian coast

1747

British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats the French at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre

1760

George III becomes King of Great Britain

1812

War of 1812: The American frigate, USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, captures the British frigate HMS Macedonian

1822

Greek War of Independence: The First Siege of Missolonghi begins

1828

St Katharine Docks open in London

1854

The Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade)

1861

The Toronto Stock Exchange is created

1900

The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal

1917

Traditionally understood date of the October Revolution, involving the capture of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia. The date refers to the Julian Calendar date, and corresponds with November 7 in the Gregorian calendar

1920

After 74 days on hunger strike in Brixton Prison, England, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney dies

1924

The Zinoviev letter, which Zinoviev himself denied writing, is published in the Daily Mail. The Labour party would later blame this letter for the Conservatives' landslide election win

The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces swing music as "a degenerated musical system… turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell". His warning is widely ignored

1940

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army

1944

Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich

1944

The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo

1944

The Romanian city of Carei is liberated by Romanian and Soviet forces from Nazi-Hungarian occupation

1944

World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf — the largest naval battle in history, takes place in and around the Philippines between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the U.S. Third and U.S. Seventh Fleets. Afterward is the first Kamikaze attack of the war

1945

The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan's surrender to the Allies

1962

Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council proving that Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba

1962

Uganda joins the United Nations

1962

Nelson Mandela is sentenced to five years in prison

1971

The United Nations seats the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (see political status of Taiwan and China and the United Nations)

1977

Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0

1980

Proceedings on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction conclude at The Hague

1983

Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état

1991

History of Slovenia: Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia

1995

A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students

1997

After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo

2004

Cuban President Fidel Castro announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned